WVK Wrote:
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> Not very helpful.

You asked for the reference and I took a few moments to find it for you, and then another few to give it to you. There is absolutely no need for you to be quite so voluminously polite in your thanks.


> Wouldn't a lathe indicate
> knowledge of the wheel?

There is evidence of AE knowledge of the wheel as early as the 5th Dynasty. See the Frontispiece to Quibell and Hayter's "Excavations at Saqqara - Teti Pyramid, North Side". This image is also reproduced in Clarke and Engelbach's "Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture", Fig. 83 - (between pp.s 86 and 87). The text underneath states, "A scaling-ladder, fitted with wheels...this is the only representation of a wheel known in the Old Kingdom". (Note this is a 1990 Dover reprint of the 1930 original which had the title "Ancient Egyptian Masonry: The Building Craft". One or the other edition may be available online, I don't know.)

I find no listing for an AE word meaning "lathe" in the OK or MK periods. Some time ago I had occasion to do some research regarding the AE word "nhp" - a word which in later times could have the meaning of "potter's wheel" (and so somewhat similar to the concept of "lathe", no?) - see the 1250 B.C. document here: [archive.org] - p.27. This usage (ie, "potter's wheel") seemingly also occurs in Spell 882 of the earlier Coffin Texts (see Faulkner's Vol. III, p.47), but I have not been able to find this same usage for the OK period.

The chapter I linked to in an earlier post makes a case for evidence of some sort of turning device in use in the MK and NK for the turning of furniture legs and such, and so one should think that there would have been language to describe this. I am not aware of any MK or NK tomb depictions having such accompanying inscriptions, but an exploration of this genre might produce some leads, you never know. If I were on this particular hunt, this is probably where I would next proceed.